Book Review: I was a Teenage Dominatrix by Shawna Kenney

Ahhhhh, this book was kind of awesome!

I hadn’t read a solid sex work memoir in a while– I got this one of the Small Press shelf at Powell’s in Portland. It follows Kenney from kid-hood to broke college student life, to a friend’s relative’s spare room “dungeon” to a fancier dominatrix house to independent work, and later to her exit into a new life.

The writing is upbeat and pretty great. As a reader, you get maybe 20% personal life, and 80% of what she was actually doing as a dominatrix. Yes! You won’t want to put the book down because it reads like good gossip– but it’s quality stuff so you also won’t feel like a drip for spending the whole morning reading it on the couch.